Plate-type heat exchangers are being more widely used for certain industrial applications in place of fin and tube or shell and tube type heat exchangers because they are less expensive and easier to make than most forms of heat exchangers. In one form of such heat exchangers, a plurality of plates are clamped together in a stacked assembly with gaskets located between adjacent plates and traversing a course adjacent to the plate peripheries. Flow of the two fluids involved in heat exchange is through the alternate ones of the layers defined by the clamped plates.
The stacked plates also can be joined together as a unitary structure by brazing the various components together. U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,776 discloses a plate heat exchanger made in such manner. U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,391 discloses a plate heat exchanger in which plural parallel spaced plates are welded together. The space between plates is occupied by nipple-like protuberances formed in the plates and which serve to increase turbulence in the fluid flow. All of the fluid flowing in a given defined space is in contact with the plates to thereby enhance heat transfer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,581 discloses a heat exchanger including a plurality of stacked plates, each plate including a pair of opposing, downwardly projecting walls and a pair of opposing, upwardly extending walls. The downwardly projection walls are bent outwardly so as to fit within the corresponding walls of the plate above it. U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,199 also discloses a plate type heat exchanger wherein each plate includes a flat section and a plurality of annular flanges protruding from the flat section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,494 discloses the employment of a turbulator, i.e., a turbulence producing device, in a plate heat exchanger. U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,596 discloses another construction of a plate heat exchanger in which spaced, rectangular-shaped plates define a succession of fluid flow passages, the alternate ones of which are associated with the flow of the two fluids involved in heat exchange. The plates have four orifices located at the four plate corners. Two of these orifices are associated with one fluid flow and the other two with the second fluid flow. The orifices are aligned with tubular passages leading to the various fluid flow passages.
While plate heat exchangers of known construction and as exemplified in the aforementioned U.S. patents, have the advantage of being less complicated and more easily fabricated than fin and tube types, many employ components that involve unnecessary assembly steps or possess shapes that entail undesirable shaping procedures. Further, they require maintaining a components inventory that could be reduced if a more simplified plate heat exchanger construction optimizing standardized components usage was provided. With a standardized system, it would be possible to provide a stacked plate exchanger that could be produced economically and efficiently on demand with a variety of different interchangeable structures to satisfy a wide variety of needs.